The present invention relates to the data processing field, and more particularly, relates to a method and computer program product for automatic conversion of data based on a location extension in a server computer system.
Data exchanged between clients and servers frequently requires some form of conversion. In the case of file serving, for example, the file may exist on the server in the EBCDIC representation, but needs to be converted to ASCII for use on a client personal computer (PC). Similarly for a print server, data may originate on a PC in ASCII, but require conversion to EBCDIC when submitted to a host print server. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that there is not one xe2x80x9cASCIIxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cEBCDICxe2x80x9d representation. Data is characterized by a xe2x80x9cCodepagexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cCoded Character Set Identifierxe2x80x9d (CCSID) which defines the particular representation of the data. While this data exchange problem has historically existed between ASCII and EBCDIC character representations, the native representation of the Java programming language is Unicode, adding another scenario where data conversion is needed.
In general, many known host systems include a different representation of the data on the host than the representation on the client. For example, with Unicode, many host systems, such as a UNIX host system, store Unicode in Big Endian or left-to-right byte ordering format, whereas client personal computers (PCs) use Little Endian or right-to-left byte ordering format.
Many known file protocols do not allow for exchange of data representation information. For example, the SMB protocol used most frequently by Windows and OS/2 clients does not support the exchange of data representation information. Thus even if the data is xe2x80x9ctaggedxe2x80x9d correctly on the server or marked with the server""s representation of the data, there is no way to either communicate this representation to the client or know what representation the client expects and do an automatic conversion.
A need exists for a mechanism that allows for automatic conversion of data in a server computer system to provide a correct data representation for a client computer system.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a method and computer program product for automatic conversion of data by a server computer system based on a location extension in a universal naming convention (UNC) name. Other important objects of the present invention are to provide such method and computer program product for automatic conversion of data substantially without negative effect and that overcome some of the disadvantages of prior art arrangements.
In brief, a method and computer program product are provided for automatic conversion of data by a server computer system based on a location extension in a universal naming convention (UNC) name. Responsive to receiving a universal naming convention (UNC) name used for identifying data stored on the server computer system, a predefined location extension to a share name in the universal naming convention (UNC) name is identified. The identified predefined location extension is utilized for automatic conversion of the stored server data.